To the Rescue game coming to Nintendo Switch

The upcoming To the Rescue game will be coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year, developer Little Rock Games and publisher Freedom Games announced on Tuesday morning, March 9.

To the Rescue is a simulation game that puts the player in control of their local animal shelter, and they must make decisions as the director in how to use the shelter’s resources in the wisest manner.

While there are plenty of warm fuzzy parts – like when animals get adopted, or community members give donations – there are also difficult problems like fundraising, illnesses, overcrowding and maintaining a good reputation within the community. This also means that occasionally dogs will need to be put down at times, though this option can be disabled in the settings if the wishes.

Each dog has its own unique personality, and matching them to potential adopters’ needs is an important part of the process of finding these rescue dogs forever homes.

 The To the Rescue game will be coming to Nintendo Switch later this year.

While the candy-coated hand-drawn animation style and a bouncy piano-driven soundtrack draws players in with a similar “aw cute!” reaction as pet-care classics like Nintendogs, Webkinz or Animal Crossing, the nitty-gritty of daily management should keep them interested, and pair well with Cara Sue Achterberg’s book One Hundred Dogs and Counting when it comes to raising awareness for what shelter workers experience on a daily basis.

According to the development team, while the looks were drawn from cute pet-care history, the actual gameplay mechanics came more from simulators like Prison Simulator and Roller Coaster Tycoon, as realism was stressed throughout the process as they wanted it to be a fun user experience, but also an educational one.

“The challenges dog shelters and their volunteers face every day truly inspire us,” Olivia Dunlap, co-founder of Little Rock Games, said in a press release. “It’s a setting we felt was ripe for exploration in games and we look forward to bringing this world to Nintendo Switch and Steam later this year.”

20 percent of the profits (purchase price $19.99) will go to animal rescue organizations, and the To the Rescue game will arrive on Switch sometime in late 2021. It will also be available through Steam on both PC and Mac sometime in summer 2021.

Little Rock Games is an Arkansas-based game publishing company that creates both board games and video games, which is rather unusual, as most specialize in either physical or digital formats. To learn more about them, see their website for more details, or check out their Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages (@LittleRockGames on IG, @PlayLRGames on Twitter).

Freedom Games is dedicated to “providing players around the world with unique and memorable experiences,” as their website states.

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